Conferences and Workshops

Based on the award-winning monograph Relational Inequalities (Oxford 2019), this talk is an introduction to relational inequality theory (RIT). RIT makes the following claims: Resources, like money, jobs and dignity, are generated and distributed relationally in organizations. Actors makes claims on those resources. Some people are denied access to organizational resources through processes of inclusionary and exclusionary closure. Others appropriate resources based on their ability to exploit weaker actors in interactional and exchange relationships. Actors are more or less powerful in these claims making processes and this relational power tends to be associated with categorical distinctions such as class, occupation, gender, education, citizenship, race, and the like. Institutions and organizational fields influence, but do not determine action and opportunities. Rather actors, use cultural and other tools to devise local strategies of action. Introducing both a theoretical tool kit and a broad set of research exemplars Relational Inequalities is intended to challenge both more macro and micro sociological approaches to inequality.

Over the past decade, birth rates have fallen in the United States, reaching lows not seen since the 1970s. When birth rates first fell, many expected fertility to rebound as the U.S. recovered from the Great Recession. Instead, fertility continued to fall, and the U.S. now joins other industrialized countries with consistently low fertility, sparking concern over population decline and negative economic impacts. The Center for Family and Demographic Research will host three leading fertility scholars who will share their insights into the causes of today’s low birth rates, their predictions for likely trends in the future, and the implications of sustained low fertility. The symposium is free, but pre-registration is required. Please contact the CFDR office to register.

The Ethics of Now with Adriane Lentz-Smith continues from home with a series of brief, thoughtful and timely conversations about the ethical dilemmas of this historic moment. This week, on Thursday, June 11, 2020, at 7pm, join Professor Lentz-Smith and Anna Gassman-Pines, Associate Professors of Public Policy for the conversation “Well-Being for Children and Families During COVID-19.” After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

Professor Goldstein will review DUHS Electronic Health Records, research opportunities and ways to access the data

Research on the "retreat from marriage" rarely focuses explicitly on marriage intentions and their relationship with marriage outcomes.  In this paper, we extend the small body of research on marriage intentions in several ways in an effort to better understand the trend toward later and less marriage in Japan.  Using two different sources of nationally representative data, we show that, although intentions to remain unmarried have increased over the past 35 years, the large majority of young Japanese men and women report that they intend to marry at some point.  We articulate several different scenarios that might explain this "marriage paradox" and find varying degrees of empirical support for each.  It is clear that rejection of marriage (predicted by two prominent theoretical frameworks) applies to only a very small proportion of young Japanese men and women.  We also find relatively limited support for provocative media portrayals of a generation of Japanese uninterested in "bothersome" relationships.  The most common pattern we observe in the data is, by far, one of "drifting" into singlehood.  This is a scenario in which young men and women with more or less strongly expressed intentions to marry, but remain unmarried across a period of eight years (the length of the panel survey we examine.)

The Center for Child and Family Policy invites you to attend the Early Childhood Initiative lecture: "Race and Class Disparities in Parental Spending on Children's Care and Education."

Speaker: Heather Hill, Associate Professor, Evans School of Public Policy, University of Washington

Date: March 17, 3:00 pm to  4:00 pm,

Location: Sanford Building, Rubenstein Hall, Room 200

A growing literature has documented the large and persistent impact of increasing investments in children — from income support programs, to educational investments, to health coverage. Yet, we persistently spend too little on children, especially the poorest. The results are bad for children and bad for our economy. Diane Schanzenbach presents the case for investing more in children and provides policy solutions.

The Duke Center for Child and Family Policy presents the Sulzberger Colloquium: Romeo & Juliet in the Digital Age: Using Mobile Devices to Track Teen Romance, featuring Marta Tienda, January 30, 12:00 to 1:30 PM, Sanford Building, Rhodes Conference Room. Lunch will be served. Please register so that we order enough catering for all attendees. Once deemed frivolous, transitory experiences, adolescent romantic relationships are now recognized as key milestones in adolescent development and precursors to healthy adult partnerships. Mobile technologies are appealing for administering surveys to youth because they align with their communication habits and can capture relationship dynamics prospectively. The mDiary Study of Romantic Relationships provides substantive insights about the complexity and fluidity of teen romantic liaisons as well as methodological lessons for survey researchers.

Dr. Fu leads and coordinates the development and implementation of the World Bank's development data agenda. She has been an active leader of the global statistical community, having served or currently serving as a member of the U.N. Secretary-General's Independent Expert Advisory Group on Data Revolution for Sustainable Development; as a Council Member of the International Statistical Institute; and Co-Chair of the Global Steering Committee of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics, among others.